How to Write and Deliver a Compelling TED Talk

Crafting a Central Idea

For this assignment, you will write a script for a potential TED talk. The topic of your script can be the same as the one you wrote on for the letter assignment, or it can be an entirely new topic. Caveat: If you also used your academic argument paragraph topic for your formal letter assignment, you SHOULD NOT use that topic a third time, and instead you should pick a new one. ). In theory, this would be the basis for a TED talk of about four to five minutes. The script should be submitted through the assignment page by midnight on Thursday, November 26. Here are some basic points to help guide you. For more detailed guidance, you should also review the supporting materials linked in the Week 9 folder along with the grading scheme that is attached to the assignment page. 1) Have ONE main idea as the central focus of your talk. Here are some possible approaches: • Uphold a “common-sense” view on your topic (“Every kid needs a champion”) • Argue a counter-intuitive point (“The way we think about charity is wrong”) • Explain a knowledge breakthrough in your area of interest (“Here’s how bacteria talk”) • Describe how your own experience led you to an idea or action (“I am the son of a terrorist; here’s how I chose peace”) • Motivate people to action (“We need to talk about an injustice”) or greater self-awareness (“Your elusive creative genius”) 2) Think about your audience: • Imagine that in this case your audience is your fellow college students • What kinds of evidence will they best respond to (see below)? • What kind of background information will they need to understand your topic/main idea? • What kind of language/tone will most effectively reach them? • What images/graphs can you include to illustrate your ideas/connect with your audience? 3) Think about how you will support your idea: • What kinds of evidence will you use to convince your particular audience (see above): statistics, numbers, individual real-world examples, personal anecdotes, funny stories etc.? • What kinds of persuasive techniques (and in what proportions) will these pieces of evidence help to establish: logic, emotion and/or credibility? 4) Think about how to structure your talk, with a beginning, middle, and end: • Beginning: how will you open the talk: with an anecdote, a joke, a significant quotation, a popular saying, a counter-intuitive statement etc.? (For ideas, review the TED talks in Week 8, plus the related discussion board activity) • Middle: how will you organize the supporting evidence to back up a clear and concise main idea? (Again, see the TED talks assigned for the course for ideas, plus other supporting materials in the Week 9 folder). • End: how will you bring your talk to a satisfying close? What is the key “takeaway” from your talk? (Ditto). 5) Consider how to use language and tone to best persuade your audience. • Remember, the target audience consists of your college-attending peers! • What sort of vocabulary/phrasing is likely to be most effective in connecting with and persuading this audience? • What sort of tone (attitude to subject and/or audience) is likely to be most effective in connecting with and persuading this audience? (Remember that the tone is likely to shift throughout the talk, depending on the persuasive technique you are employing at any given point) 6) Proof-read your script for errors of grammar/mechanics • Check for grammatical errors such as fragments, run-ons, verb agreement etc. • Check for errors of spelling and punctuation • Remember that it’s OK in this genre to use non-standard forms (fragments, contractions, colloquial language etc.), but that these must be consciously used as part of communication strategy and not simply the result of carelessness! 7) Include visuals to help support your main idea/elucidate supporting evidence/connect with audience • Images used should either help audience to understand ideas, persuade audience with logic, or serve to build a connection with audience (for example, by providing a dose of humour) • Graphs used should be easy to understand and clearly related/coherently integrated with points/evidence also communicated in body of script For this assignment, you will write a script for a potential TED talk. (NB: You will only submit the script, I will leave up to you whether you choose to develop it into an actual talk. Of course, it’s a possibility, but there are no marks for it!) The topic of your script can be the same as the one you wrote on for the letter assignment, or it can be an entirely new topic. Caveat: If you also used your academic argument paragraph topic for your formal letter assignment, you SHOULD NOT use that topic a third time, and instead you should pick a new one. The script should be approximately 500-750 words, or TWO-THREE pages, double-spaced (not including images/graphs). In theory, this would be the basis for a TED talk of about four to five minutes. The script should be submitted through the assignment page by midnight on Thursday, November 26. Here are some basic points to help guide you. For more detailed guidance, you should also review the supporting materials linked in the Week 9 folder along with the grading scheme that is attached to the assignment page. 1) Have ONE main idea as the central focus of your talk. Here are some possible approaches: • Uphold a “common-sense” view on your topic (“Every kid needs a champion”) • Argue a counter-intuitive point (“The way we think about charity is wrong”) • Explain a knowledge breakthrough in your area of interest (“Here’s how bacteria talk”) • Describe how your own experience led you to an idea or action (“I am the son of a terrorist; here’s how I chose peace”) • Motivate people to action (“We need to talk about an injustice”) or greater self-awareness (“Your elusive creative genius”) 2) Think about your audience: • Imagine that in this case your audience is your fellow college students • What kinds of evidence will they best respond to (see below)? • What kind of background information will they need to understand your topic/main idea? • What kind of language/tone will most effectively reach them? • What images/graphs can you include to illustrate your ideas/connect with your audience? 3) Think about how you will support your idea: • What kinds of evidence will you use to convince your particular audience (see above): statistics, numbers, individual real-world examples, personal anecdotes, funny stories etc.? • What kinds of persuasive techniques (and in what proportions) will these pieces of evidence help to establish: logic, emotion and/or credibility? 4) Think about how to structure your talk, with a beginning, middle, and end: • Beginning: how will you open the talk: with an anecdote, a joke, a significant quotation, a popular saying, a counter-intuitive statement etc.? (For ideas, review the TED talks in Week 8, plus the related discussion board activity) • Middle: how will you organize the supporting evidence to back up a clear and concise main idea? (Again, see the TED talks assigned for the course for ideas, plus other supporting materials in the Week 9 folder). • End: how will you bring your talk to a satisfying close? What is the key “takeaway” from your talk? (Ditto). 5) Consider how to use language and tone to best persuade your audience. • Remember, the target audience consists of your college-attending peers! • What sort of vocabulary/phrasing is likely to be most effective in connecting with and persuading this audience? • What sort of tone (attitude to subject and/or audience) is likely to be most effective in connecting with and persuading this audience? (Remember that the tone is likely to shift throughout the talk, depending on the persuasive technique you are employing at any given point) 6) Proof-read your script for errors of grammar/mechanics • Check for grammatical errors such as fragments, run-ons, verb agreement etc. • Check for errors of spelling and punctuation • Remember that it’s OK in this genre to use non-standard forms (fragments, contractions, colloquial language etc.), but that these must be consciously used as part of communication strategy and not simply the result of carelessness! 7) Include visuals to help support your main idea/elucidate supporting evidence/connect with audience • Images used should either help audience to understand ideas, persuade audience with logic, or serve to build a connection with audience (for example, by providing a dose of humour) • Graphs used should be easy to understand and clearly related/coherently integrated with points/evidence also communicated in body of script